


Bioluminescence

by SabineElectricHeart (TheLifeAndLiesOfFerns)



Category: Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/M, Fluff, Forests, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27981807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLifeAndLiesOfFerns/pseuds/SabineElectricHeart
Summary: Barry has a surprise for Dawn, much to her chagrin.
Relationships: Hikari | Dawn/Jun | Barry
Kudos: 26





	Bioluminescence

“Barry!” Dawn said, as if the name was poison on her mouth. “I swear over Mesprit’s holy gem, if this is some trick or scatterbrain idea of yours, I _will_ …”

“What, Dee Dee? You _will_ what?” The blond boy responded, mockingly. “You'll kill me? You know you can't live without me.”

“You just try me, you stupid loudmouth.” The girl grumbled.

It was just after sundown up over the Sōya Strait, the lights inside the houses and businesses on the town over the walls of the Battle Park were being slowly turned on, as the shopkeepers prepared for evening business.

Barry was leading Dawn through the labyrinthine hedge paths between the Tower and the forests leading up to the Survival Area and the slopes of Stark Mountain, all the while the girl tried to peak beneath the blindfold that he had put over her eyes.

Dawn mumbled an empty threat and pulled on her guide’s arm so he would slow down. “Don't walk so fast, Barry, or I’ll trip. Some of us are blindfolded!”

Barry laughed at her frustration, but still contained his excitement and slowed down. The boy was surprisingly focused and restrained about that surprise of his tonight. When he was younger, he would hardly ever last fifteen minutes before he blurted whatever it was that he was planning to keep as a surprise, spoiling many a birthday party on their kindergarten class.

Alas, Dawn notes with cautious admiration that he managed to keep quiet about his _mysterious_ surprise for the entire day, even if he had come very close from cracking. He did not, though, and it was driving the girl insane with anticipation and dread. It would be not unlike him for it to be an elaborate ruse or some disgusting happening on the woods. It would not be unlike him at all.

He wrapped his thin arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. Her heart sped up at the action and you swallowed down the butterflies.

 _Barry is just your friend_ , the bluenette prudently reminded herself, _nothing more, nothing less_.

She was his friend. Just his friend. The kind of friend whom he teased and annoyed all day, as well as most of their days, and is now dragging her through a dangerous field completely blind just because he wanted to show her some weird and mysterious thing he stubbornly refused to disclose.

“Can you now just tell me where we're going?” She bemoaned, asking the same question once more. “Or are you trying to murder me and dispose of my body on the bay?”

He shook his head, not that she could see it. “No way! I’m not cracking on this one. It's a surprise, Dee Dee. Besides, we’re close, now.”

That damn nickname made her alabaster skin flare up with goosebumps once mote. Barry and their friends had been calling her Dee Dee ever since that stupid Pusle and Minum debacle on kindergarten, but as the years passed, her anger about the name faded away, but just when it concerns the blond boy.

Or at least it did, until Dawn had noticed a few months ago that this feeling gnawing insistently on her heart was just a little more than a friendship to her. Ever since then, that nickname made her inside twist and the blood rush to her cheeks.

Nevertheless, he is just her obnoxious and self-centred friend. No good will come out of her fantasizing and trying to see things that were not there, and more likely would never be.

After a long run outdoors, Barry finally stopped and so did her. He let go of her and she heard a PokéRadar being turned on and grass rustling somewhere to the front of her. The cold wind that came from the artic, a fixture on the island bay, blew past her naked legs and flushed cheeks.

The boy, then, took her hand again and pulled her along with him.

Wherever Dawn had stepped into was even colder than just the wind. A shiver ran through her spine. The only warmth came from Barry's hand, but it too disappeared as he let go of her.

“Look at this…” He whispered from behind her in her perky ear and then took the blindfold from her face.

Her blue eyes needed a moment to adjust to the setting. They were standing in the middle of a clearing behind the Battle Tower private courtyard. Above them, thousands of stars flickered in the northern sky, but that was not why Barry had brought her here.

The reason was the scene at the pond by the treeline. A swarm of Volbeat and Illumise flew through the clearing, closely to the water surface, dancing as their soft cries and giggles sounding like a beautiful song in the silent and dark nocturnal woods.

“Wow…” Dawn breathed out. “This is so… Breath-taking. How did you know about it, Barry?”

He scratched the back of his head and averted his eyes. “Dad told me there was a swarm of those coming over these days, and that this pond was the best place to admire them, and I thought it would be a cool way to surprise you. I remember how much you wanted to see a couple when you were a little girl and we watched that movie…”

“ _Love at First Fight_ …” Dawn recalled. “Mesprit, how I loved that movie. You slept all through it, though.”

The boy smirked. “Yeah, definitively not my cup of tea, but still… There you have it. Your own, private May Festival. Do you like it?”

She smiled softly at her childhood best friend. “I love it, Barry. Thank you so very much for bringing me here.”

Barry took her hand and gave it a little squeeze. He brought back some of the warmth from before, that heat that spread through her heart, along with sparkles of energy up her arm.

Just friends or not, Dawn was happy to be here with him.


End file.
